Charlottetown  is the capital and largest city of the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island.

 

It is a popular port with cruise ships and has a considerable historical heritage in addition to some excellent seafood restaurants. For the literary buffs it offers easy access to  Green Gables Heritage Place,  a 19th century literary landmark which served as the setting for the ‘Anne of Green Gables’ novels by Lucy Maud Montgomery.

 

 

We arrived at Charlottetown in September 2019 onboard the P&O cruise ship Arcadia…

 

…which berthed at the modern Cruise Terminal…

 

As this was our first visit to Charlottetown  I had undertaken a degree of research in order to maximise our time at this port. As part of that planning I had utilised the ship’s excursions brochure and, in particular, the ones that  included visits to venues where local seafoods and beers were part of the excursion…

There had been some serious downpours of rain prior to our arrival and the sky was still somewhat dark with cloud. As one of the first couples ashore we found the terminal building to be a great source of information…

…and for those that must, wifi was freely available…

….along with the odd photo opportunity…

Once out of the terminal building we headed the short distance to the Charlottetown Visitor Information Centre which is located  in Founders’ Food Hall and Market…

 

Renovated from the two remaining Canadian National Railway brass houses in an heritage area that was once almost entirely dominated by the railway and industry….

we were most certainly too early to catch the real buzz of the place…

…though we made good use of the helpful Visitor Centre.

A few minutes walk away we discovered the first of our planned sites to visit, The Confederation Landing…

 

….which is basically a landscaped riverside park with a large number of historical links….

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…and an ideal site for any number of photo calls…

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In September 1864, Charlottetown played a pivotal role in the forming of the Canadian Confederation when what is known as the ‘Charlottetown Conference’ took place in Province House which still stands today and is one of the town’s main visitor attractions.

Leaving the park we headed along ‘Water Street’ till we came to the Prince Edward Island Regiment Museum….

… which highlights the history and heritage of military forces on the Island. A collection of over 2000 artefacts, some dating as far back as 1807, along with various interpretative displays including  some about Islanders who served with the Devil’s Brigade during the Second World War and another about Prince Edward Island and the First World War.

Easily accessible behind the Regiment Museum and in a small park is the Irish Settlers Memorial…

From this  park we could now view our furthest plan visit point…

…the Prince Edward Battery.

Firstly though we continued our walk along West Street in order to take in the historic Beaconsfield House…

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From Beaconsfield House we headed along the Victoria Park Boardwalk…

…in the direction of the Battery, stopping first at Government House…

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…finally reaching the the Prince Edward Battery….

 

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From the Battery we had a good view of some of the magnificent house we passed when walking along West Street between the Regiment Museum and Beaconsfield House…

 

On a better day weatherise we probably would have spent some time in Victoria Park…

 

…the entrance to which is adjacent the Battery.

This was now our cue to return to the town where we had earmarked two more buildings to view prior to sampling what Charlottetown had to offer by way of seafood. An easy walk along Kent Street, taking in the rather plush Rodd Charlottetown Hotel….

 

….before dropping onto Grafton Street to arrive at Province House…

 

…fronted by its traditional War Memorial. A fraction of disappointment here as Province House, at the time of our visit, was undergoing some major refurbishment…

…though I did manage to capture the descriptive plaque…

A stone’s throw from Province House was our final point of interest on our planned route, St Dunstan’s Basilica… 

 

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It was now time for us to explore the culinary offerings of Charlottetown. We’d had an inkling of what was on offer from studying the ship’s excursion schedules before leaving home.

 

So without any further ado we headed for the Gahan House…

…one of Charlottetown’s authentic pubs which was  once the home of  prominent local merchant John Gahan. The property  now houses the Gahan House Brewery, Pub & Mercantile which featured highly on the ship’s list …

 

I couldn’t resist a visit…

….before sampling two of their brews and a large Moules Mariniere…

 

Having thoroughly enjoyed that we headed across the road to the Olde Dublin Pub…

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…where we indulged in their speciality, oysters and scallops…. 

Our final gastronomic treat was another of Charlottetown’s seafood institutions, Dave’s Lobster Shack…

 

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The Lobster Half and Half….

…all washed down with a cheeky  Kim Crawford New Zealand Rose…

…though Dave hadn’t yet invested in decent wine glasses – not that we were over bothered by now! They did us proud…

And we weren’t yet done. We craved a dessert so on our last leg back to the ship we fell upon the Peakes Quay…

…where we duly despatched a few more beers…

…and  two rather grand portions of  Seven Nut Pie…

 

Get a load of that….

Well fed and lubricated we set off to return to our ship, but not before stopping  for some more fun photographs….

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We’d had a fabulous day out in Charlottetown and, just for the record, here’s my wife’s Fitbit record of the ground we covered…

which I  rather hope  justifies the over indulgence in food and drink.

That concludes this review of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. An attractive, popular  and excellent all-round cruise stop on Canada’s eastern seaboard.

 

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Disclosure to potential conflict of interest:

It is common throughout the travel industry for travel journalists and many cruise bloggers to be provided with complimentary cruises for the purpose of their reviews.

Solent Richard has no ‘conflict of interest’ as he is not an accredited journalist, he pays for his cruises, and is happy to confirm that all his reviews are his own given without fear or favour.